Teen Wolf: S02E03 - 'Ice Pick'

Wow the Shape Shifted reviewed has had more hits than the Omega review already and the Omega one has twenty four hours on it! Anyway, episode three - enjoy!

This episode opens awesomely, it's fast paced, scary - full of atmosphere and has an actual impact on the immediate plot. Although I would argue why they made Mr. Argent into such an asshole considering for the last two episodes he seemed to be the only good hunter.

We also learn why Hunters use arrows - I don't think this is necessary but it is kinda cool we're being trained to fight werewolves with Allison. Basically a werewolf can't heal the arrow wound, if the arrow is still in them. We also learn that the Argent's - who want to believe themselves holy than thou - have an in family code that all final decisions are made by women, who are trained to lead and that the Argent men are just trained to be soldiers who get no final say in anything. I guess this explains why Allison's Mum has been such a psycho bitch this entire time. I really enjoyed this concept, that because they believe wars are made by 'men' and they want to come across as 'undoubtedly good' they get the women to make the decisions instead, separating the blame and also separating themselves from any other of histories thugs. I like how Teen Wolf doesn't mind playing with audience expectations and gender roles. It makes some interesting statements for what basically amounts to ‘Twilight the TV series’.

The blending between the different elements is a lot jerkier this time. The way the scenes are put together, especially in the first half of the episode, there feels no connection, it feels like you could move the scenes around and still make just as much sense of the story. And that is never a good sign.

Oh great this week we get two more characters. Yet despite getting twice as many characters they get much less time Isaac did, why pace it this way? It just feels weird. Anyway queue Erika, she has epilepsy and just like Isaac she is introduced as if she has been here the whole time, despite only just meeting her now. To be fair it was pretty cool we actually got to see Derek offering the chance to become a werewolf this time around, even if it basically amounted to him saying 'ew' at her and then creepily rubbing her legs, I guess in an effort to seduce her? Basically her motivation is that her epilepsy has left her to be bullied and the side effects of her medication for her epilepsy have made it even worse. So Derek gives her superpowers and a sexy transformation. And then queue Boyd, another character everyone acts like they’ve been there the whole time, despite only being introduced to him in this episode. He works at the icerink and has no friends, because, reasons I guess. He decides to join Derek so he can be a part of something and wants to be more like Scott – as to why that means he sides with Derek, I don’t know. I’m starting to feel that with how insanely underwritten he is he is just there to be a token black guy.

This all leads to a full on Werewolf battle and you know that is fucking awesome. Although is there any logic behind werewolves? Scott and Derek look similar when shifted except Derek has blue eyes, not yellow, but I assumed that was because he was born a werewolf although they are red now because he is an Alpha. But then why do Erika and Isaac look so completely different to not only one another, but completely different to Derek and Scott as well? And now Derek is the alpha, shouldn't he shift into a full werewolf like Peter did? AND if Isaac and Erika are part of a pack, doesn’t everyone become stronger, not just the Alpha? So shouldn't the two of them've kicked Scott’s ass, even if Scott has better control of his powers? Oh wait I forgot, Scott is the main character!

With the red eyes and everything I couldn't help but see massive similarities between Derek and the crossroad demons from Supernatural. Either way I really like how he’s going after people who want the Werewolf abilities and that he isn’t just going after random people and is instead giving them the choice – building an army with soldiers that want to be there. It’s in stark contrast to the Argent’s who are born without a choice. It is a little irritating that they are trying so hard to make it clear who are the bad guys and who the good guys are but they’ve left enough ambiguity, especially with Derek to make it at least not exactly black and white but it’s much more clear cut than in season one. Well except for the werelizard who is just randomly attacking people.

Okay so the Jackson Lydia moments were leading somewhere. It would appear that as Lydia wasn't affected by the werewolf bite, she is somehow immune and because of Jackson and hers...past relations...she has vaccinated him too which is why his body rejected the bite – despite him finding he has super strength. Oh and Lydia is apparently going nuts...or Peter Hale is back in a sort of knock off set of sequences like when Sam’s wall came down.

Hey look, so the show forgot all about the vet that stood up to the Alpha and knew about werewolves, phew I thought I was the only one. He gets a much larger role in this episode and seems set to have an even bigger one next week. Or this week as it just came out, whatever.

Overall it was another great episode of Teen Wolf – the pacing still feels off and the blend between the horror action side to the romance high school side didn’t feel nearly as seamless as it did last episode. But over all we got some great action, a whole lot less filler and nice little character pieces too.

Pros;

• The episode just felt a lot less flabby than it has done for the last couple. 
• Further insight into werewolf hunting and the Argent's in general. 
• Playing with gender roles!
• Erika. I know it isn't exactly the 'classy' response, but she is smoking and I'm glad to have her around.
• I like the way Derek is choosing his soldiers.
• The fact the whole Jackson and Lydia thing was actually leading somewhere after all.

Cons;

• Mr. Argent is a dick.
• The elements just didn't come together as well as they did in the last episode.
• More characters, really? Erika was hot and also explored and so on, so fine (and feminism marches on!) but Boyd? He looks like he might be important later on but right now he was kinda pointless.
• Trying to understand the werewolf lore is confusing.
• It seems to be ripping off Supernatural in places(?)
• Scott's main character powers.

Think About It!

-Locke